George Bush keeps telling us how noble his fight against the insurgents in Iraq is without being aware of the lessons to be learned from an earlier, successful insurgency by poorly equipped, raggedy-assed patriots fighting on their home ground, who defeated one of the most powerful military forces in the world and forced the occupying army to leave.

The leader of that insurgency was George Washington, the first to occupy the office of President, who learned firsthand that a foreign military cannot defeat a home-grown insurgency. King George III, who could have continued to sacrifice his troops to no purpose was perceptive enough to realize that he had lost; he withdrew to prevent further losses. George Bush is not as perceptive as George III was and instead thinks he is winning. Bush has been holding up a target for the insurgents of 140,000 soldiers and he thinks the way to win is to make the target bigger by 21,500 more soldiers.

George Bush, by identifying himself with the wrong George, Washington, doesn't realize he's actually in the position of King George III, sending troops to another country and losing to the local insurgents.

In searching through recent history there is only one place to find a true comparison to George Bush. In the 1930s, in Germany, Adolph Hitler used false claims, false accusations and false promises to stir up the fear and prejudices of the people, the definition of demagoguery, to come to dictatorial power. George Bush used the same demagoguery, the same false claims and accusations to scare the people of the United States into giving him dictatorial powers, what he calls the unitary presidency. Hitler waged unprovoked, aggressive war by attacking other countries that were no threat or danger to his country, falsely claiming that Poland was planning to attack Germany. George Bush did exactly the same thing by attacking Iraq in an unprovoked, aggressive war, falsely claiming that Iraq was harboring terrorists, was responsible for the 9/11 attacks and was planning to attack the United States. Hitler's megalomania led him to the delusion that he had the right to attack other countries with his army to force them to submit to his ideology, fascism. Bush's megalomania has led him to the delusion that he has the right to attack other countries with his army to force them to submit to his ideology, which he claims is democracy.

Hermann Goering said precisely what George Bush has done. He told how to take the people to war. "That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger." Although Bush has probably never heard of Goering, he's following his playbook, to the letter.

Looking back on the last six years of George Bush's presidency, it's clear that we would have been better off without a president at all. The fact that a George Bush can become president makes us consider whether we should take the chance again, and we realize that it's not worth the gamble. George Bush is the best evidence there can be that rather than run the risk of having another one like him, we should just eliminate the office of president. The constitutional duties and powers of the president are limited to mostly ceremonial, figure-head duties, and the only real power the president has is as commander-in-chief of the military, when congress declares war. Congress can easily appoint a commander-in-chief when they, as they rarely do, declare war. The last time was in 1941.

The one lesson the people of the United States have learned from the George Bush presidency is: you have been lied to, you have been deceived, you have been made fools of. Don't let it happen again.

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Ed Martin is an ordinary person who is recovering from being badly over-educated. Born in the middle of the Great Depression, he is not affiliated with nor a member of any political, social or religious organization. He is especially interested in (more...)